Personal in Public

Recently, 'Public Contact' was staged live in the Posco corporate headquarter lobby in central Seoul. The performance was timed to coincide with the busy noon lunch rush, as office workers poured from the towers above, making their way to the streets outside of the main public lobby of the Posco headquarters. 

As the performance artists write- "the memory of touch" are aptly considered words; curious (and in this setting) perhaps an inappropriate juxtaposition of uncommon closeness within a place of definitive social boundary. The half hour long performance of spontaneous positioning and comings together of man/ woman- posed in comfort and discomfort- played out against the wariness of public eyes. The public space of the lobby is only that at fixed times. The lobby is both public (in classification) and yet wholly under private control. Acts of close human contact remain strangely out of place here.

'Public Contact' was a beautiful reminder of connections (and contrasts) within semi-public corporate places, suggesting that such 'public' urban space carries the weight and burden of expectation. Actions outside of this stand in stark defiance.  Personal in public lives momentarily.